Instead of just kicking the ball of blame back along the corridor to the SFA – instead of making the field of enquiry for this review as narrow as ‘Are we OK on the tax stuff now?’ – why not do it properly?

Take on the whole apocalyptically awful governance of the game?

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Or £1.50, as long as the rest of it is in a trust.

The Berlin Wall was built and knocked down in less time than it has taken those running our national sport to acknowledge the shortcomings of a system that has proven itself time and again as not fit for purpose.

And anyone with half a brain would tell you after another week of navel gazing that if we’re going to have a properly independent look at where we stand, the only conclusion they’ll reach is that it’s time we had one transparent body serving the game, not two serving themselves.

Ralph Topping (Image: Craig Williamson/SNS Group)

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Despite all the noise surrounding it, despite all the threats of crowdfunding judicial reviews and all the kicking of dead dogs, the scope of any examination into the SPFL and SFA’s hierarchy and structures has to run wide and it has to run deep.

Two organisations with the same members, yet who spend half their time working against each other?

Whose two chief executives are both employed on huge salaries to be custodians of what’s ostensibly the same thing, yet who can hardly bring themselves to speak to each other?

And whose board members seem to bed-hop like Love Island refugees when it suits them.

The hypocrisy, back-biting and conflicts of interest are too numerous to mention – but let’s take a recent one as an example.

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Nominated to both the professional Game Board and the Main Board of the SFA as a representative of the SPFL.

On the panel to interview and select Malky Mackay as their new performance director to implement a flagship Project Brave programme that was a painful year in the making.

Yet who decides, when he and a few other clubs like his don’t fancy the way it’s going, to email these clubs to tell them he has started an “embryonic discussion” with the SPFL – a body who know the square root of diddly squat about player development and aren’t equipped with staff or expertise to deal with it – to see if they would take over the running of their programme.

OK, you can say he’s looking after the interest of his club and I understand all the arguments about why he doesn’t fancy the path chosen.

The game needs a big fix but a lot of it is too radical for the tastes of some.

Malky Mackay visits Braidhurst High School as part of Project Brave (Image: PA)

As an SFA board member, though, where’s his duty of care to the game as a whole? And to them? That’s what he’s there for, right?

Yet he’s busy trying to outsource a large chunk of such an important plan away from those trying to implement it?

In the end he was talked back into the tent – but that’s just one example of the problem.

Vested interest v greater good. Using positions of influence to undermine and get it your way rather than the right way. Or how about the annual merry-go-round of the SPFL board announcement on Monday?

Six of the nine directors were new. Last year it was four out of eight with a new non-exec director only in the door four months.

How can the game possibly be stable if the people who are supposed to hold it to account are only there for a year at a time?

Where’s the critical examination of policy going to come from if they arrive at it like goldfish on laps of the bowl, or if they’re batting for the SPFL one minute and the SFA the next?

I spent Friday morning judging the Grassroots Awards at Hampden and, believe me, there are some phenomenal stories going on in Scottish football right now – brilliant community projects, wonderful people committing their lives to the game.

A couple of months ago I was involved with the SPFL Trust’s tour of their fantastic charity operations that run at 32 different clubs.

Again, terrific people using the power of football to make the world a better place but who get no proper central funding to grow.

Stewart Regan with Neil Doncaster (Image: SNS Group)

They’re all being let down at the very top. Speaking to a senior executive on one of the governing bodies, he described the place as running more like a golf club than a modern corporate entity.

It’s why, I’m led to believe, the Scottish Football Supporters Association’s current and utterly essential survey will show that the stakeholders in the game – from fans all the way to refs and players – have trust in their clubs but absolutely none in their governing bodies.

Ironic, really, considering the latter is made up of the former.

Again, though, all that shows is the desperate need for independence and leadership.

A good friend of mine, who’s involved heavily in the game, sent me a text and I’m going to plagiarise it because I couldn’t find a way of putting it better myself.

“So few are playing their part in improving the standard, sustainability and long-term viability of our game, with leadership and vision at all levels sadly lacking.

“Someone with the presence, respect, charisma and passion to lead change has to be out there…”